About This Crazy Mom

Hi my name is MOM oh wait my birth-name is Alexis. These days it's MOM and yes that's right it comes out at a level higher then a scream! I have 2 very active boys. Hope you enjoy the wacky world I call life between working full time and taking care of the 3 boys (that includes my husband).

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Happy Halloween everyone! I was hoping to get this post up over the weekend, but this darn head cold made me behind. I made the Zombie's for my oldest son, and for my youngest who is still cool with mom's treats I made Halloween themed cookies. I had these 3 pack from last year's Michael's clearance bin and used them this year. it came with a cat, hat and ghost. Since I had a half batch of royal icing I made another batch of fun royal icing cookies.

After the cookies had set up I put them in little bags for Caden to give to his friends in class.

I used the dipping method
with my royal icing. I started to do the dipping method about 6 months ago to speed up
my decorating time. You can pipe each cookie which is a little cleaner
but I find the dipping method to be the best. You get your royal icing
to the outline consistency and put into a pie dish (I find this is not
too deep). Once you dip the top of the cookie you tap off the extra
icing and then you let dry! Once dry you can add your details.

For the ghost I dipped in royal icing not colored. When the white was dry I then took a pipping bag with black royal icing and made the eyes and mouth. I saw on the package they outlined the ghost in black also but I liked this look.

For the witches hat I dipped in royal icing colored black. When the black was dry I took a pipping bag with red to make a ribbion and outline the brim of the hat. You can get fun and add dots etc or just leave black.

For the Cats i dipped in royal icing colored black. When the black was dry I took a pipping bag with red to make the eyes (you can add a small black dot in the middle also but I liked the look with out). I took a ziplock with white royal icing to add a nose. I then took the black pipping bag to pipe on whiskers.

I like to
do my cookies the night before to give plenty of time for the icing to
harden.

Mix
powder sugar and cream of tartar in your mixer, just to make sure it is
incorporated in. Slowly add egg whites, then whip start of slow then go
to very high speed. She says around 2 minutes, my friend had an older
mixer so it took almost 10 minutes. You want stiff peaks that hold on
and won't fall off the spoon. Add in your flavor, I would suggest you
use a clear flavoring. This would be the glue texture great for ginger
bread houses etc.

Take
1 cup of royal icing in a smaller bowl then add your coloring, lightly
mix so you don't get air into the the icing. I'm like her and like the
gel coloring.

For Top Coating - Add 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tsp Water (This is if you don't want to outline and flood)

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Next on the spooky cookie list was for my middle school-er is not cool with my normal fun cute cookies. So I had to find something kind of ghooly but still cool. I saw a picture of these zombies ... WELL I thought I saved it now I can't find it so I'm going by memory and can't give a link for credit.

I use the dipping method
with my royal icing for thegrey color. The only grey coloring I found was a airbrush food so it was watery and wasn't as vibrant as my other colors. I started to do the dipping method about 6 months ago to speed up
my decorating time. You can pipe each cookie which is a little cleaner
but I find the dipping method to be the best. You get your royal icing
to the outline consistency and put into a pie dish (I find this is not
too deep). Once you dip the top of the cookie you tap off the extra
icing and then you let dry! Once dry you can add your details.

I like to
do my cookies the night before to give plenty of time for the icing to
harden. After the grey had setup over night I was able to add the blood splatters. I took a plastic piping bag and added the details with red royal icing. I have found in the past making this a little thicker
than your outlining consistency is best if not they run together. I first tried a fork to splatter but it didn't look right so just used the bag to fling the icing (when in your adult life is this ok ... take it when you can).

Mix
powder sugar and cream of tartar in your mixer, just to make sure it is
incorporated in. Slowly add egg whites, then whip start of slow then go
to very high speed. She says around 2 minutes, my friend had an older
mixer so it took almost 10 minutes. You want stiff peaks that hold on
and won't fall off the spoon. Add in your flavor, I would suggest you
use a clear flavoring. This would be the glue texture great for ginger
bread houses etc.

Take
1 cup of royal icing in a smaller bowl then add your coloring, lightly
mix so you don't get air into the the icing. I'm like her and like the
gel coloring.

For Top Coating - Add 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tsp Water (This is if you don't want to outline and flood)

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Next on my list of cookies to make are Spider-Man themed. I signed up for Spider-Man themed Birthday party for Birthday Dreams (bringing birthday's to homeless kids). A very special 2 y/o will have these cookies on top of frosted cupcakes. What gets better but a COOKIE and a CUPCAKE ... At least in my world that is the bomb! I've been experimenting with different ways to show a theme between fondant, modeling chocolate and now royal icing cookies. I've done the iconic Spider-Man Cupcakes two ways before (Here and Here), but I wanted to try a new look.

I use the dipping method
with my royal icing for the two colors (red and blue). I started to do this about 6 months ago to speed up
my decorating time. You can pipe each cookie which is a little cleaner
but I find the dipping method to be the best. You get your royal icing
to the outline consistency and put into a pie dish (I find this is not
too deep). Once you dip the top of the cookie you tap off the extra
icing and then you let dry! Once dry you can add your details.

I like to
do my cookies the night before to give plenty of time for the icing to
harden, for the web designthey needed to be wet to add details. I took a plastic piping bag and added the details with Black royal icing. I have found in the past making this a little thicker
than your outlining consistency is best if not they run together. I tried a few different ways to make the webs. The best way I have to make the web is to make a spiral on top of a WET cookie. I then started from the middle and pulled out to make four sections. I then went and pulled IN in between these sections. Play around find what works best. I pipped the lines on also but didn't like the look. Since earlier this weekI ran out of black AmeriColor and picked up black Wilton color to Michael's I used this. Wilton in a NON squeezable bottle. I so hate these bottles the squeeze bottles are the easiest and LESS messy!!

For the Spiders I waited the overnight to make sure the red was dry before I pipped on the Spider. For the body I made a small oval and then a large oval below (mine are not perfect but I think they are still cute). For the legs instead of pipping them on I decided to use the food marker to draw them on, this way they didn't merge if the royal icing expanded.

Mix
powder sugar and cream of tartar in your mixer, just to make sure it is
incorporated in. Slowly add egg whites, then whip start of slow then go
to very high speed. She says around 2 minutes, my friend had an older
mixer so it took almost 10 minutes. You want stiff peaks that hold on
and won't fall off the spoon. Add in your flavor, I would suggest you
use a clear flavoring. This would be the glue texture great for ginger
bread houses etc.

Take
1 cup of royal icing in a smaller bowl then add your coloring, lightly
mix so you don't get air into the the icing. I'm like her and like the
gel coloring.

For Top Coating - Add 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tsp Water (This is if you don't want to outline and flood)

Monday, October 24, 2016

For a fun Halloween treat I tried my hand at spiderweb cookies using royal icing. I'm really loving the look of royal icing cookies. NOW if I was eating a cookie I'm a huge fan of a large amount of frosting on it (use frosting on cookies .. heck frosting alone is my downfall). These sure look fun, now I'm no master cookie maker but I love that I'm getting better.

I use the dipping method
with my royal icing. I started to do this about 6 months ago to speed up
my decorating time. You can pipe each cookie which is a little cleaner
but I find the dipping method to be the best. You get your royal icing
to the outline consistency and put into a pie dish (I find this is not
too deep). Once you dip the top of the cookie you tap off the extra
icing and then you let dry! Once dry you can add your details. I like to
do my cookies the night before to give plenty of time for the icing to
harden, but this needed to be wet to add details. I took a plastic piping bag and added the details with Black royal icing. I have found in the past making this a little thicker
than your outlining consistency is best if not they run together. I tried a few different ways to make the webs. The best way I have to make the web is to make a spiral on top of a WET cookie. I then started from the middle and pulled out to make four sections. I then went and pulled IN in between these sections. Play around find what works best. I pipped the lines on also but didn't like the look. Since earlier this weekI ran out of black AmeriColor and picked up black Wilton color to Michael's I used this. Wilton in a NON squeezable bottle. I so hate these bottles the squeeze bottles are the easiest and LESS messy!!

Mix
powder sugar and cream of tartar in your mixer, just to make sure it is
incorporated in. Slowly add egg whites, then whip start of slow then go
to very high speed. She says around 2 minutes, my friend had an older
mixer so it took almost 10 minutes. You want stiff peaks that hold on
and won't fall off the spoon. Add in your flavor, I would suggest you
use a clear flavoring. This would be the glue texture great for ginger
bread houses etc.

Take
1 cup of royal icing in a smaller bowl then add your coloring, lightly
mix so you don't get air into the the icing. I'm like her and like the
gel coloring.

For Top Coating - Add 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tsp Water (This is if you don't want to outline and flood)

The Monkey Family!!!

Thank You to My Wonderful Sponsors!!!

Total Pageviews

You Can Follow, but the GPS Thingy is Broken! (Leave comment I'll come by to follow you too)

No More Fluffy Girl

Before & Now (So Far)

Feed My Need To Gab (PR OK)

Have you ever run into the person that you give a compliment to and they tell you where they got it and what a deal they got? Well yes that would be me, I'm a natural born gabber who loves deals and LOVES to share them with everyone (even if they may not want to listen ... LOL).

Let my gift of gab and my picture taking craziness show off your product! I'm loveable and Gabby! Please email me any products you would like me to review or do a giveaway for @alexisrunningaway@gmail.com